For Such A Time As This | For Such a Time | Nate Grella

Let's stand, let's worship. ♪ I'll praise in the valley, I'll praise on the mountain ♪ ♪ I'll praise when I'm sure, I'll praise when I'm doubting ♪ ♪ Yes I will, I'll praise when outnumbered ♪ ♪ I'll praise when surrounded ♪ ♪ Praise is the water my enemy's drowning ♪ ♪ As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I'll praise when I feel it, I'll praise when I don't ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause I know it's still in control ♪ ♪ Praise is a weapon, it's more than a sound ♪ ♪ My praise is the shout that brings Jericho down ♪ ♪ As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive, how could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive, how could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ All right church, put our hands together. ♪ I'll praise cause you're sovereign, praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful, praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're sovereign, praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ Praise cause you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful, praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪

♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Yes we praise you, yes we praise you Lord ♪ ♪ I love you Lord ♪ ♪ Oh your mercy never fades me ♪ ♪ All my days I've been held in your hands ♪ ♪ From the moment that I wake up ♪ ♪ Until I lay my head ♪ ♪ I will sing of the goodness, God ♪ ♪ All my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am made for ♪ ♪ I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ I love you boys, you have left me in awe of God ♪ ♪ Led me through the fire in darkest nights ♪ ♪ You were close like no other ♪ ♪ I've known you as a father, I've known you as a friend ♪ ♪ I have lived in the goodness of God ♪ ♪ All my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Of the goodness of God, yeah ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ ♪ When my life laid down, you surrendered now ♪

♪ I'll give you everything, your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me, your goodness is running after, ♪ ♪ It's running after me, your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me, When my life laid down, surrendered now, ♪ ♪ I'll give you everything, your goodness is running after, ♪ ♪ It's running after me, your goodness is running after, ♪ Let's sing this together, all my life. ♪ And all my life you have been faithful, ♪ ♪ And all my life you have been so, so good, ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able, ♪ ♪ I will sing the goodness of God. ♪ ♪ The goodness of God. ♪ ♪ All my life you have been faithful, ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good, ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able, ♪ ♪ I will sing the goodness of God. ♪ ♪ I will sing the goodness of God. ♪ ♪ All my life you have been faithful, ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good, ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able, ♪ ♪ I will sing the goodness of God. ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good, ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able, ♪ ♪ I will sing the goodness of God. ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good, ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able, ♪ ♪ I will sing the goodness of God. ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good, ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able, ♪ ♪ I will sing the goodness of God. ♪

♪ All my life you have been so, so good, ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able, ♪ ♪ I've got just one move ♪ ♪ I will sing the goodness of God. ♪ ♪ With my arms stretched wide ♪ ♪ I will worship you ♪ ♪ So I'll throw up my hands ♪ ♪ And praise you again and again ♪ ♪ Cause all that I have is a hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much having nothing else fit for a king ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Come on my soul, oh don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song, cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on my soul, oh don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song, cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on my soul, oh don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song, cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ So I throw up my hands, praise you again and again ♪ ♪ Cause all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much, I've got nothing else fit for a king ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ So I throw up my hands, praise you again and again ♪ ♪ Cause all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪

♪ And I know it's not much, I've got nothing else fit for a king ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Well, hey, happy Mother's Day to all of the moms that are worshiping with us today. We are so grateful for each of you and we hope that you feel celebrated here at Compass. So welcome to Compass. Our mission is navigating people to God. My name's Nate, I'm one of the pastors here. We are so glad that you've chosen to worship with us today. Whether that's here in the room, wanna welcome those of you who are worshiping online as well. Also, let's welcome in all of our men from Allred who are joining us today. Guys, we're glad that you're here. Hey, if you're a guest here, something that we say every single week is give us six weeks. We believe God is moving and working in this place and we'd love for you to be a part of this amazing community that we call Compass. Now, as we begin today, I wanna ask you a question. Have you ever read a story and thought this would make a great movie? Well, the story that we're gonna look at from Scripture over the next three weeks, that is that kind of story. And so we're gonna dig into this Old Testament book called Esther.

If you have a Bible or if you've got a Bible app, you can go ahead and turn there and that's what we're gonna spend the next three weeks at. And Esther is a book that has everything. It's got a king that parties like a frat boy with a crown. It's got a queen that refuses to be objectified. It's got political drama. It's got betrayal. It's got courage. It's got a bunch of plot twists along the way. And honestly, if Netflix got a hold of the book of Esther, it would turn it into a six-season series and they'd probably even have a Christmas special about it. Like, that's how much is in here. It's wild. it's messy, it's dramatic, it feels way too modern, honestly, for something that was written some 2,500 years ago. But here's the part that is really interesting to me. God is not mentioned once in the book of Esther. Not by name, not by reference, there's not even a cameo by God. And if you've ever lived through a season where heaven felt quiet and life felt loud, well, then you know exactly what that feels like. Like maybe you've prayed and you've asked God and nothing, you've waited and nothing, you've hoped and nothing, and you started wondering if maybe God, he has placed your file at the bottom of the stack. If that's you, well, then Esther's story

is gonna be for you and for this very moment. Because even though God never speaks, even though God never appears, even though God never gets mentioned, his fingerprints are on every page. It's a story of a God who doesn't need the spotlight to run the show, a God who works behind the scenes in the moments you think are random or wasted or failing, and he is there. And what we'll see as we move through the book of Esther is it reminds us that God's silence is not his absence. And that even though it seems as though God seems to be hidden, he isn't inactive. And so if you're in a season where you can't see him or you can't feel him or you can't maybe even trace what he's doing, the book of Esther is gonna remind us all that God does some of his strongest work when he's offstage. That what we'll see as we move through the story of Esther is that God is a God who works in the shadows. So we turn to Esther chapter one, and the book of Esther opens to what I'll call act one. And it opens in a place where the shadows shouldn't exist at all. And so scene one that we're gonna look at today, it opens in the palace of this king who has more power than he has sense. And that man is a king known as King Xerxes. He's the most powerful man on the planet at the time, but he's also the kind of guy who proves that wisdom

and power, they are not the same thing. And so I want you to imagine that the camera zooms into this room in the palace, and the scene, it kind of feels like a mix between the TV show, The Bachelor, Game of Thrones, and a frat party that's gone on way too long. Now, since this book reads like a movie script, I thought we would give this first scene a title, and we're gonna have fun through this series, so I'm just gonna let you know. You're probably gonna laugh more than you've ever laughed in church, and it's okay to laugh, all right? I'm giving you permission, and if you wanna say amen, it's okay to say amen in this series, all right? But we're gonna have some fun. And so we're gonna call this first scene Animal House. Because our story begins with a party hosted by King Xerxes, and he is the most powerful man in all the world at the time. He's the king of Persia. And just for visual purposes, I thought it would be really fitting that we cast a character for each of these people in the story with an actor that you might know, or an actress, or a celebrity. And so as I was thinking about who could play the role of King Xerxes, immediately who came to my mind is this guy right here, right? We're going John Belushi, because we said it's Animal House, all right?

It seems fitting, and you'll understand why here in a moment. And here's what I wanna tell you about King Xerxes. King Xerxes, he loved a good time. In fact, a good time for a long time, that was his motto. And this scene opens with this huge party that he's throwing. He's invited all the military commanders, these political people, and the advisors from his kingdom to this party, that I'm telling you, it lasts a long time. And look, I don't know what the longest party that you've ever been to is, or that you've been a part of is, and I'm not judging you today, all right? But I thought it would be a little fun to just find out where the room kinda lands on this, all right? And so I want you to raise your hand. If you were here and you didn't make it to the ball dropping on New Year's Eve, this past New Year's Eve, go ahead and raise your hand, all right? All right, I want you to look around the room. Those are all the lightweights in the room, all right? And that's okay, all right? I want you to be proud of that. Because King Xerxes is the opposite. He throws a party that we read in Esther chapter one, verse four, lasts 180 days.

Some of you, you would refer to that as your freshman year of college, right? And that's what it's like. And so he throws this six-month party. You'd think after six months that maybe he'd wanna take a break, right? But not King Xerxes. After it's over, he's like, man, I think we need to celebrate the fact that we just had a 180-day party. What should we do? And one of the advisors in the room is like, King, I have an idea. Let's have a party for the party. And the king's like, bro, you nailed it, right? And so after 180 days of partying, they party for another seven days. They have a seven day party for the 180 day party. And so we get to Esther chapter one, verses seven and eight. And this is what we read. It says, drinks were served in gold goblets of many designs. And there was an abundance of royal wine reflecting the king's generosity. By edict of the king, dilly dilly. All right, that's not actually in there, I added that. Says no limits were placed on the drinking for the king had instructed all his palace officials to serve each man as much as he wanted. So 187 days straight of partying. And I know this is gonna be hard to believe,

but at the end of that 187 days, King Xerxes, he is wasted, right? Like he is drunk. And it turns out that he makes a decision under the influence of alcohol that I'm not sure that he would have made had he been sober. You see, he starts to think about his queen and he thinks, you know what would make this party really good if I invite the queen in and I have her dance in front of all my drunk frat party friends, like this would be a good idea. And so we pick back up in the story and it says this, on the seventh day when King Xerxes was in high spirits from the wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him to bring before him Queen Vashi wearing her royal crown in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles for she was lovely to look at. And so we're introduced to the queen at the time and King Xerxes summons for Queen Vashi. And as I was thinking about who to cast for this role, it made it very much sense that it be Shakira because apparently her hips don't lie, all right? And there's probably a few of you like, I just don't get it, it doesn't make sense. I don't know what that means. You're gonna Google it, you'll figure it out, all right? But when she gets summoned, she's like, there's no way I'm parading myself

in front of your frat boy party after 187 days of Miller time, right? And so verse 12, then we pick up and it says this, it says, but when they conveyed the king's orders to Queen Vashi, she refused to come and this made the king furious, he burned with anger. Now, that's really all that we get to know about Queen Vashi, but you gotta give her a hand for being bold, right? Now, Xerxes, he's furious by this and so he gets his advisors together and this is what it says next, verse 15, he says, what must be done to Queen Vashi, the king demanded? What penalty does the law provide for a queen who refuses to obey the king's orders properly sent through the eunuchs? And here we learn a few things about King Xerxes. The first thing that we learn about him is he refers to himself in the third person. Now, ladies, listen, if a man refers to himself in the third person, that is a red flag, all right? And if you are dating someone who refers to themself in the third person, you need to run as far as possible away from them. The other, amen, right? The other thing that we learn about King Xerxes is that he has this thing that people in power, especially some men in power can oftentimes have and that is they don't like to be told no or they don't like to have anyone question their authority

and that's what happens with King X here. Like, he's not having it and so he asked the advisors what to do and this is what they say, starting in verse 17, it says, women everywhere will begin to despise their husbands when they learn that Queen Vashi has refused to appear before the king. Before this day is out, the wives of all the king's nobles throughout Persia and media will hear what the queen did and will start treating their husbands the same way. There will be no end to their contempt and anger. So if it pleased the king, we suggest that you issue a written decree, a law of the Persians and the Medes that cannot be revoked. It should order that Queen Vashi be forever banished from the presence of King Xerxes and that the king should choose another queen more worthy than she. So King Xerxes listens to a group of advisors who honestly have no, they have no business or position to give relationship advice and he decides that he's gonna make an example of Queen Vashi and so he banishes her from the kingdom and so now we have the story of a king with no queen. That's the end of scene one. We move to scene two. We're gonna call scene two today The Bachelor and The Bachelor opens now four years later and King Xerxes, he's honestly beginning to miss Shakira, I mean Vashi.

See, right, like he's beginning to think that maybe it was a bad idea to get rid of the queen, and the four years has gone by and he's been humbled a few times by now. In fact, the Greeks, they're starting to gain power against the Persians, and so he's feeling a little bit distressed and depressed and discouraged. And so his advisors, they suggest a way to get his spirits up, and they come to him one day and they're like, King, we've got this really good idea. Actually, we just met with these two guys, Chris Harrison and Jesse Palmer, and they had this really good idea that we should bring the most beautiful women in the entire empire into your throne room and we should have this beauty pageant, and we'll have these rounds, and after each round, you date all these women and you choose the ones that you wanna keep around and you give them a red rose. And you just keep doing these round after round until you get down to the last round and you just have a few women left, and you give one final rose to the woman who you want to be your wife. And the king's like, this is a great idea. And I know what some of you are thinking. I can't believe there was once a culture that thought this was a great way of finding true love. But it once existed, all right? Listen, that's funny no matter what, right?

And I know some of you Bachelorette fans, you're like, oh, he just offended me. No, listen, I get it, you just watch it for the drama, it's okay, all right? Anyway, back to the story. All the beautiful women from the Persian Empire, they get brought before the king, including this Jewish girl named Esther. Now, as I was thinking about who could portray Esther, it was a no-brainer for me. Immediately, who came to my mind was Carrie Underwood, right, because before American Idol, she was nobody, nobody knew who she was, and that's Esther's story as well. Now, my wife, Amanda, thinks it's just because I think Carrie Underwood's kind of like my celebrity crush, right? That's not why, all right? Esther is just a normal, beautiful girl, we know that. She's normal, she's ordinary. And what's interesting is that Esther, she doesn't enter herself into this pageant. She actually gets entered by her cousin, this guy by the name of Mordecai. And so now, we're in Esther chapter two, verse seven, it says this, Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was as beautiful.

Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. And so what we find out here is that that Mordecai has taken Esther in as his own daughter because Esther's parents, they had both passed away. And so as I was trying to think about who could be cast to play Mordecai for this movie, immediately who came to my mind was Pedro Pascal, right? Like the Mandalorian, all right, come on. He's taking care of Grogu, The Last of Us, like all these shows that he's in, he seems to be this fatherly figure. And Mordecai has this belief that Esther can actually win this beauty pageant. And so he enters into it. Now listen, if you and I were to look at Esther's story, we would almost immediately rule her out as someone that God could use in a dramatic way. Because if you look at Esther's story, she has all these strikes against her. Now, I'm just gonna give you three main ones here that we see in the story. Strike one, she was a Jewish exile living in a foreign land. And because she was Jewish living in a foreign land, it meant she had no power, she had no rights, she had no position, she had no wealth, she had no authority, she had no esteem, she had nothing. That's strike number one. Strike number two, she was a woman. And look, in those times,

women were not treated with much respect or given much power, which is still true of many of the Middle Eastern cultures today. But in that culture, especially at that time, you would never think that a woman could be used that way to change the course of history of the world by preserving this messianic line so that Jesus could be born. But she is about to. But this is strike number two. Strike number three, well, she was an orphan. Esther, she didn't have a mom or dad to look after her or raise her up. She didn't have the kind of security and those kind of examples in her life. And honestly, we don't even know what happened to her mom and dad. But because they were exiles who were living in this brutal land, you can imagine that their death, it had to be pretty traumatic. And graciously, when Esther has nowhere else to go to care for her, it's her cousin Mordecai who adopts her as his own. But Esther, she is this foreign orphan girl living in Persia. So that's strike three. She's not what you would call a position, a person who is well positioned to be a person of impact at this time. But this is one of the ways that we see God

over and over again move in the shadows. Like he'll use the least likely of people to accomplish his greatest purposes, which means this, no matter what you've done, no matter how far you've gone, no matter the mistakes that you've made, God can still use you, that God can redeem your story. He can redeem my story. And like I shared last week, like one of my favorite things that I see happening with the men at our All Red campus is that he's turning the story of these men around and he's using them to do great things for the kingdom and the place that they find themselves right now. And guys, we're so proud of you. And listen, if God can do that there, he can do that outside those walls as well. He can do that in your story. And for Esther, despite maybe what maybe looked like some strikes against her, God is about to use her. Because what we find out is from the moment that King Xerxes sees her, he knows that she's the one. We'll pick back up here, Esther chapter two, verses nine to 11, it says this. She pleased him and won his favor immediately. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned her to seven female attendants selected from the king's palace and moved her and her attendants

into the best place in the harem. So everything seems to be going really well for Esther at this time. But there's two things in this story that seem to be clearly outside of God's will. And I don't wanna skip over them and I don't wanna not address them. The first thing that we see about Esther is that she hid her nationality. Look at verse 10, it says, Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. Like we read earlier, her name, her Jewish name was Hadash. But she goes by Esther. She's hiding her faith in the one true God. Now, God in his love for his people, he had forbidden the Israelite people from marrying non-Israelites because he knew that it was gonna lead to the spiritual compromise. Like this was an express thing that God said, do not do this. And so by Esther being entered into this pageant to marry the king, she's in a pageant to marry the most non-Israelite of all non-Israelites. Clearly, this would not have been a part of God's will. A second, Esther, we see she is placed in a sexually compromised position. And I wanna be very clear on this.

The text, it gives us no reason to believe that Esther, she had any real power or even agency in this. Like this was not God's design for her. This was a broken world. It was a godless empire and a vulnerable young woman who was just caught inside of it all. But here's how we can be encouraged by Esther's story. Listen, God can use you no matter what you've done or in Esther's case, no matter what has been done to you. Because what we see about God over and over again in scripture is this, is that he is the redeemer. And it's my favorite thing about God is that he can redeem anything. And look, that's not to minimize anything that you've done. It's not to minimize anything that has been done to you. Because I get for some of you, you walked in here today or you tuned in and you're watching this right now and the pain is real and the hurt is real. And I'm not saying that it isn't. And the guilt and the regret for some of you is so heavy. But I want you to know this. God can redeem, he can restore and he can rebuild anything. There are no boundaries to his grace. There's no limits to his love. There's nothing that he cannot turn for good. And if he did it for Esther, if he did it for me, which I've shared some of my story before, and if I had more time, I would tell you more about how God worked in my life. Listen, if he can do it for me, he can do it for you too.

No matter what position you find yourself in or how many strikes you have against you. What I want you to hear, I hope that you hear through this next few weeks as we go through Esther is this, is that you are never too far gone for God. That just like we have in our lobby, those banners that hang, you're loved and accepted, you're not outcast or unwanted in the kingdom of God. And I want you to understand that today. Okay, so now that we've mentioned those things, let's pick back up, starting in verse. 11, and notice what it says. It says, every day, he, who's talking about Xerxes, walked back and forth to near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. So we're in the Bachelor still, right? And the Bachelor is clearly falling for her more than all the other girls. But I'm telling you, this might be the most extended season of the Bachelor ever, all right? Because look at what it says next. It says, verse 12, before a young woman's turn came to go into King Xerxes, she had to complete 12 months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oils of myrrh and six months with perfume and cosmetics. Guys, listen, if you thought your wife took a long time to get ready, they got nothing on Esther here, all right? I mean, 12 months, she's getting ready

to go on this date with King X. And I just want you to think, though, if you are Esther for a moment. Think about what it must have been like to be this young orphan girl in a foreign land. Like, how scary that must have been. 12 months of insecurity. 12 months of wondering if she would be chosen. 12 months of thinking, well, there's no chance for me. But she keeps making it past the next round. She keeps getting a rose at the rose ceremony. And she starts to wonder if she, an orphan Jewish girl, could possibly be the next queen of Persia. Now, what Esther's story reminds us is that God is in the shadows when we find ourselves in these seasons of waiting. And I would say that the hardest part of God's will is oftentimes not the what, it's the when. I think a lot of times, we maybe even know what God has in store for us. Like, we can see it, or we can sense it, or we've heard somebody kind of like speak to us, and it was like God speaking through someone else. And so we know what the what is, but it's the when. And it's hard because God's timing and our timing, they don't always line up, right? Like, God is way more patient than we tend to be. And maybe for some of you right now, you find yourself in the waiting. And you're wondering why it hasn't happened yet,

and you're beginning to think it may not ever happen. If I'm being honest with you, there's a lot about the will of God that I don't completely understand. But what I'll say from my own experience is that God doesn't waste the waiting. Like, I wish I had another 30 minutes in this message today to just tell you a little more of my story, and how I would have never expected 23 years ago to be standing in the place that I am now, and doing what I'm doing today. But God knew. God, in my own life, He knew that this was the place that I would stand for such a time as this, and that God was working in the waiting. I just didn't see it in the moment. Now, the waiting, here's the thing. It can either be a time of frustration, or it can be a time of anticipation. It all depends, and it comes down to whether or not you have faith. And so, for some of you, I get it. Like, you maybe have been in this season where you're like, God, where are you at? And you've been questioning Him. If that's you, I wanna encourage you and invite you to make a shift, to change your thinking, to say this. God, I know you're here. Help me to see what you're doing.

I think if that becomes your mindset, it changes everything. Now, for Esther, the big day finally arrives, and the time comes for her to go in to see the king. And this is what we read next, Esther 2, 17 and 18. It says, now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women. She won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And the queen gave a great banquet. Esther's banquet. For all his nobles and officials, he proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts. So King X, he considers Esther the most beautiful woman in the land. She wins the rose. She wins the beauty pageant. She becomes queen. And it's in this position, she receives what we're gonna discover that God is gonna use her to change the course of history. And what Esther's story shows us is even though sometimes we can't see him working, he's working behind the scenes, keeping watch over his own. And what happens next, I'll be honest, it's kind of shocking. But if you wanna know, you gotta come with me. Come back next week, all right?

And like, I mean, you could read your Bible, right? There's that, I mean, actually, I hope you read your Bible, but here's what I hope you'll do. I hope you'll come back next week. I hope you invite somebody else, share this message, and read your Bible, all right? That'd be the win for me as a pastor. But here's the thing I want you to understand as we begin this series. I don't know what it is that you might be facing right now. Like, I don't know the difficulties that you might find yourself up against, but what Esther's story shows us is that God is working behind the scenes to accomplish His purpose. And I don't want you to underestimate who He will use or what He will do or how He will work. And listen, you may come from the wrong background. You may come from the wrong family origin, you believe, or you may have made some wrong decisions. And from where you sit, you're thinking to yourself, you're not worthy. But listen, where you sit is not where God sits. And where God sits, He sees a daughter. Where God sits, He sees a son. And so even if you see yourself as disqualified because of your past mistakes, or maybe even overlooked because of your circumstances, maybe you even feel frustrated because of the waiting or uncertain

because of the season that you find yourself in, just remember Esther, an orphan girl, a foreigner, who is perfectly positioned for God to accomplish His purpose. And maybe the very thing that you think disqualifies you, maybe the thing that is unlikely, the unlikely thing that God can use in your life to accomplish His purpose is the thing that He will do. Maybe it's the job that's beneath you. Maybe it's the marriage that you've given up on. Maybe it's the family of origin you came from. All of those, those could be strikes against you. Maybe that's your Persian palace and the very place that God has positioned you for impact for such a time as this. And so this week, I wanna invite you to do something really specific as we begin this series. I want everybody to do this this week. I want you to write down your strikes. I want you to just pick three things that are maybe strikes that you would say you have against you. Just maybe in your notes on your phone app, just write those down or take out a piece of paper. Do this before you go to bed tonight. Just write down those three strikes. And honestly, it probably won't be that hard to do, but write down something that you think either one disqualifies you,

maybe circumstances that you can't control or a situation that has caused you so much frustration and creates a lot of fear about your life. Just three strikes. And then after you've done that, here's what I want you to do. After each one of those strikes, I want you to write these two words. These two words are simple, but God. Strike one, but God. Strike two, but God. Strike three, but God. And then what I want you to do is I just want you over the next few months ahead to just look and see how God works in the shadows, keeping watch over his own. Because I know this about God in my own story, is that even when I couldn't see him working, he was working. Even when I couldn't see him moving, he was moving. And he's doing that in your story as well. And so as we close out this message today, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna spend some time in worship and I don't want you to leave this room, all right? Like I know it's really easy, but go get my kids. We're getting in line for pictures. Don't worry, our kids team will take great care of your kids for a few more minutes, all right? And the line, we will get you through the line

as fast as we can. I want you to stay in this moment because here's what I believe God is trying to do right now for some of you. For some of you, you feel disqualified. For some of you, you feel like your past that you are too far gone, but God sees something different about your life. And so for the next few moments, what I want you to do is remind yourself that even in these seasons of uncertainty, that God's faithfulness remains and that he's working and that he's moving and that he's here, that even when you can't see it, he's working. And so I wanna challenge you for the next few minutes to thank God for what he's already done and what he's going to do. And as we worship together, I know there's some of you, you're going through a hard season right now. We heard some stories last service that I believe God is gonna move and work in and maybe that's your story. story where you're just like, I don't know. And you just need prayer. Some of our staff and our prayer team is gonna be up front here, and we'd love to pray with you. Or maybe you just need to come to the front, you just need to get on your knees at the altar and just give it over to God and say, God, I'm not in control, but I know you are.

And even though I can't see you working and moving, God, I know you're there. So I need you to move in my midst today. And so as we worship together, I'm gonna invite you to come, maybe just kneel at the altar. If you need prayer, our team will be here. And then we're just gonna worship together, and we're gonna sing these words that's a reminder of God's goodness and his faithfulness. So let me pray, and then we're gonna worship. And if you wanna come for prayer, you come at this time. Father, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you are a God who is for us, a God who never leaves us, a God that even though sometimes we cannot see you, God, we know that you are there, that you are working behind the scenes, that you are moving in our midst. And so God, today, I pray breakthrough for situations. I pray for family healing to happen. I pray for addictions to be overcome. I pray for anxiety and depression to be no longer. God, I pray that you would move and work in this place. God, I pray for the family that is asking for that child that you would give them that son or that daughter. God, I pray for the wayward son or the wayward daughter that would come home, for the family that is seeking that. God, may you just move and work in ways that only you can, because we are confident that as seasons change,

your faithfulness, it never ends and it always remains. And so God, we lift this up to you. We pray this in the powerful, in the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, amen. Sing this with me today. ♪ Even when I don't see it, you're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel it, you're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, never stop working ♪ ♪ You never stop, never stop working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, you're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel it, you're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, never stop working ♪ ♪ Never stop, never stop working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, you're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel it, you're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, never stop working ♪ ♪ Never stop, never stop working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, you're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel it, you're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, never stop working ♪ ♪ Never stop, never stop working ♪ ♪ You always make miracles work ♪ ♪ Promise keep light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who you are ♪ ♪ You always make miracles work ♪ ♪ Promise keep light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are, that is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are, that is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are, that is who you are ♪

♪ That is who you are, that is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are ♪ ♪ Way made, miracle world, promise keep ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are ♪ Come on church, sing that out. ♪ You are way made, miracle world, promise keep ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are ♪